Being the best you can be for your customers. It really does matter.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been nominated as a finalist for the Ernst & Young, New England region Entrepreneur of the Year event for the past 3 years.

The gala is fun. The networking is great. And the businesses are amazing.

If I have to be honest, I spend quite a bit of time wondering why I am ever invited. I’ve always struggled with some insecurities in regards to my lack of education and the fact that people just don’t look upon our business as a serious one. After all, we bake cupcakes.

So this past June, I went to the gala and experienced the same emotions. One business that was nominated was working on a cure for a particular type of cancer. Another company just reported $100,000,000 in sales. Needless to say, we didn’t win, but we had a great time and told ourselves, there’s always next year.

About two weeks after the gala I was working at the office when someone handed me a hand written letter that had arrived with the day’s mail.

The letter was from a young girl. She shared with us that her grandfather had recently passed away. She was actually writing to thank us. Why? Because in the months prior to her grandfather’s passing, she would buy two of our cupcake jars and visit him at the hospital. He was fairly unresponsive at this point. But amazingly, when she would take out the cupcake jars and share them with him he would smile and be engaged.

This young girl told us that this weekly event was the most important part of her life for the past few months. Sharing our cupcakes with him gave her precious memories and valuable time with him. Our cupcake jars meant everything to her.

And that my friends was when it hit me. While we are not working on a cure for cancer or sending people into space, each one of our cupcake jars has a level of importance to the individuals who are ordering them and sharing them with loved ones.

Maybe it’s a mom sending our product as a birthday gift to a child away at school. Or a husband sending them as a sweet anniversary remembrance. It really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we are included in people’s daily lives, and the product and service we provide is important to them. And that is reason enough to feel proud of what we do and inspired to be the very best we can be. People depend on us.

Remember…Your business doesn’t need to win the Nobel Prize to make an impact on the lives of your customers.